Synopsis

Just because an anime features a young protagonist does not necessarily mean that it is an appropriate series to show your children. Young Shinnosuke, or Shin-chan for short, is a very creative young boy that lives with his eccentric parents, Misae and Hiroshi, as well as his Prima Donna younger sister, Himawari, and has loads of unique friends to boot.

Everyday life for little Shin-chan is full of funny (and shocking) moments, most of which stem from his unnatural and sometimes profane use of language, as well as his constant acts of inappropriate behavior. Shin-chan's famous "elephant" gag is one of the most defining moments in Crayon Shin-chan, simply because it is the epitome of crude comedy, one of the core themes of the series.

Crayon Shin-chan is a hilarious show about the day in the life of a young, curious boy, that captures the awkwardness of growing up as well as the beauty of being true to one's self, no matter what others say.

Background

The first English dubbed version was produced with many famous voice actors through 2001–2002 by Vitello Productions. In 2004, Phuuz Entertainment produced a continuation of the Vitello dub with different Los Angeles-based voice actors. The Phuuz and Vitello dub aired in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Republic of Ireland, and translations of these dubs aired in Europe and Latin America. The dubs were close to the original but had seen some censorship. The English dubbed version by Funimation was produced in 2005, featuring a Texas-based cast of voice actors, and was altered in comparison to the original—sexual references, dark humor, and references to popular American culture were added later on. Additionally, many non-existent backstories and different personalities were created.

Crayon Shin-chan has also been adapted into video games, mobile games and tons of anime movies.

My opinion may not be shared by most of MAL users, because Crayon Shin-chan is rated PG(-13) in American countries and is for &quot;Everyone&quot; in my country, so everybody here sees it as an anime destined to children.

I'm not going to write a long review for this one, it's going to be plain and simple. Shin-chan is a 5 years old boy that disturbs every one, he's obviously and logically childish, he's pervert, addicted to television, his mother is really incredible to stand this impossibly irritating little boy. The show is full of under-the-belt jokes as well as troubles between adults because of Shin's way
of telling stories to others et cetera.
It's simple fun, and manages to stay fun. It is a long-running anime full of fun.

Note for those who read the manga but hadn't seen the anime, they are totally similar.

It slightly saddens me that Crayon Shin-Chan does not get very many reviews because this is my childhood ( although this series is quite inappropriate for young children in certain aspects... ). And many people in the American community think it's stupid ( which isn't wrong, because there are rather... strange parts to this series that just makes this "Crayon Shin-Chan" ).

However, there is a strange charm to this series which drag the audience in. It merely seems like a weird children's show at first glance, but it is actually an adult show with many adult-targeted humor. However, there are still an aspect of childhood
innocence left in certain ways. Either way, it can be a light show for pretty much any range. Even without being able to relate to adult humor, Crayon Shin-chan is hilarious within itself. The characters are all very unique, and all deeply plotted.

Also, the movies are something to take note of. The Shin-chan movies are focused on the fantasy adventure aspect of the series which is not very often encountered in the original series, creating that excitement out of the everyday life humor. Nevertheless, many of them also show a heartwarming connection within the Nohara family and often brings me to a gross sobbing. The movies seems to fill in the lack of excitement and portrayal of touching feelings in the original series.

Despite its weirdness and occasional fantasy aspect, I find this series very down to earth. The characters are not perfect or "cool", and they are very human. But when watching the movies, it feels as if I'm watching Gintama, another random comedy which hints at the touching back story of the characters from time to time.

Overall, I personally enjoy Crayon Shin-chan any day, and feel like it is something anyone can really get into when watching it alongside of the movies.

***THIS IS A REVIEW SOLELY FOR THE FUNIMATION ADULT SWIM CRAYON SHIN-CHAN***

When I first acknowledged that Shin-chan is finally going to be dubbed and licensed in NA, I was filled with thrill and excitement, having been a diehard Kureiyon Shin-chan fan since I was born, and could not wait to see it. However, after watching through all of it, and saw that there isn't any review on MyAnimeList on this specific release, I felt like I could give a word of advice or two for those who haven't seen it but will.

Every bit of the English dubbed version of Crayon Shin-chan reminds me of the
Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt dub. It is just a blatant and unjustifiable excuse for the voice actors, actresses and script writers to have fun and mess around with everything but without totally screwing up the original intentions and quality, but instead adding on top of it a different, but more suited type of humor for their intended audiences (North America and other English-native cultural based countries).

With that summary said, it is clear now that those who have watched all the three-season 78~ episodes, will surely be shocked, interested, and surprised by what Adult Swim and FUNimation can do to totally turn an everyone-rated show into a purely adult-targeted grotesque and profane Newgrounds type of parody. I will try my best not to go off-topic in this review, but make it easy, cohesive, and be as critical and non-biased/objective as possible.

In the American version of Shin-chan, many episodes that long-time original viewers are familiar with are turned upside down in such a way that each and every dialogue is different, thus resulting a different episodic story that tries to reach its audiences, but fails to leave an heavy impression like any of the originals do. There are of course the famous Apartment (Shin-chan blows up their house) arc, a Star Wars parody, and some related episodes that share the same settings (Happiness bunny's revenge, etc.) which FUNimation did an incredible job of dubbing them, however these still lacked the overall productive and practical sense of enjoyment the original had.

This dilemma is verified through the four or five commentary episodes, where all the voice actors come together to bash the show and explain why they did what they have done as they saw fit. Not only that, but in certain episodes many lines direct to the audience in an attempt to break the fourth wall, however this trend only adds to the audience's confusion often times to the already confusing story in each hardcore edited episodic plot and setting.

The original show's humor primarily focuses on Shin-chan's lingual disabilities, a fetish on butt-dance, lewd and childish acts, and all his friends‘ and families' yelling at him. The FUNimation version takes a huge opposite turn and deviates away from such elements, and create a world of their own. The dubbed show contains violence, insults, every-5-second swearing, characters' misery as laugh points, and just unbearable, incredibly shallow dirty and racial jokes. As expected when trying to convert such a cultural-heavy comedy show.

While both shows tend to involve the exploitation of Shin-chan's private parts, nudity, and his father and his' abnormal perverted interest in hot, young-looking teenage girls and cougars, the US version tends to use this as one of the primary selling points of the show. But this is done incredibly well that it left the viewers not comfortable enough if one episode did not have a scene of Shin-chan's commenting on wanting to grope the breasts of his prey(this generalization is lacking in the original, as it can do with or without the lewd comments).

The characters and their stereotypes have not quite changed. Hiro is still the average working class, Misae still the totalitarian dictator, Shin-chan the clueless, eccentric boy, etc. however certain characters behave differently here and there and have totally different roles to their original versions. Shiro (Whitey) has a British accent and a cunning personality, the teachers are all over sex and don't care about the things they say to the kids, the kindergarten principal is now a Mexican who is made fun of a-lot about for his genital sizes.

Up to this point, I should be able to bring the fundamental difference between the show that made me give this a 7 and the original series and movies a 9. It is lacking many of the morals, emotional connections, and familial love and relationship lessons the latter offers the audience. This version completely disregard any of the said good qualities the original had, and will not satisfy the emotional side of your soul. Sounds cheesy, I know, but it's true. Original Shin-chan was not as shallow as FUNimation version, and had a lot more connotation that the viewers could not watch without.

Shin-chan is old, and is birthed in the 90's. While the current episodes are getting along with the times, in 720p and all that jazz, the center concept and themes still haven't changed. As FUNimation picked episodes that are quite old and still revolves around more mature-but less appealing humor, they do quite a damn well excellent job in adapting for the American audience. By comparing the two versions side by side, one can easily distinguish the comedy values of the two cultures.

The cultural and lingual barriers of the jokes are non-existent as they do in the original subbed version, perhaps due to the fact that FUNimation did not pick the episodes where Shin-chan says something in Japanese similar to another word or phrase, and their parents or friends correct them, and similar type of jokes the average Joe just wouldn't be able to comprehend or find funny, due to aforementioned differences. At times the viewers can even find the voice actors themselves making fun of the show inside the show. Inception! In regards with the voice acting, not enough compliments and respect can be given to FUNimation at how perfectly they can use the same animation, but produce such drastic and incredible results, by only using clever lines, meta, and reference jokes.

To sum it up, I don't want to make this a TL;DR review, so what's most important is this: take this review with a grain of salt, and you will either love-or-hate this version. For those of you who have not watched a single episode of original Shin-chan and have no clue what it is about, watch it as if you were watching a newgrounds parody, because that's what American Crayon Shin-Chan is, but at its best. For those who have seen or are seeing the original, this will be a new start, a totally fresh start that won't bore, but appreciated by the seasoned Shin-chan lovers. Completely enjoyable, though occasionally offensive and confusing, FUNimation and Adult Swim does the job well done.

Scored ratings and punchlines:

Story 6/10 (Quite decent, some are superb innovation and unexpected, some are just repetitive and brainless, thus a fairly balanced mix)

Art 5/10 (The style of Shin-chan is natively deformed and extremely cartoon like, with the occasional short scenes with superb artistic styles only to emphasize the mood and atmosphere. However, the consistency between episodes is what bothers me quite an amount. Thus the low rating)

Sound 8/10 (Every voice acting piece was god-like, no flaws, no awkward moments, just a hell lot of fun and everyone especially Laura Bailey of Shin-chan puts their all into it)

Character 8/10 (Ridiculous, unbelievable, yet understandable and relate-able, the characters seem to be more enjoyable but less respectable than in the original version)

Enjoyment 9/10 (If you liked PSG, FLCL, and all the nonsensical comedy genre animes, you should definitely not skip the FUNimation version of Crayon Shin-chan. 50% trolling, 40% sex-related jokes, and 10% parody. What more could you need to laugh your butts off?)

Overall 7/10 (Don't know any better way to say it: It is definitely, certainly, and undoubtedly a waste of time, but if you had time to waste, you wouldn't feel it was wasted with FUNimation's Shin-chan!)

This is by far one of the most fun special anime show,it doesn't feature the kind of a story and animation you usually see in other anime shows, even tho the story is repetitive, and it might seem that the subject is mostly about a 5-year-old showing his buttocks to everybody, it isn't that way, it has it's own humour, slapstick jokes, and antics from a quirky little boy who can twist and turn any other's opinions and make them say what they don't intend to. Shin-Chan doesn't seem to behave even after his mother, Misae, spanks his behind and stretches his cheeks at a
daily basis, which makes this anime even more fun, he also has some moments where his sensitive nature reveals, of course, not missing his silly remarks in the end.

Could have been rated to 10 if the animation would be better at times ^_^

If you are interested about this anime show, see my fansub group (the link is in my profile~)

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